Pardosa amentata
In the UK we have 15 species of Pardosa and each one has its own specific courtship display and with careful study, one can identify the species without the need to genitally determine the spider. #TurnFear2Fascination #SpiderLove #LoveSpiders

I love seeing tweets from visitors to Bialowieza getting their mind blown by the sights and sounds of an old-growth European forest. It underlines just how much biodiversity we’ve lost from British woodlands, but also shows what once was, and could be again.

Join the Big Bee Hotel Experiment, and help us find out which bee hotel designs are best, and where to site them. It's easy and fun, and helps us to help the bees. Go to:
thebuzzclub.uk/thebigbeehotel…
The Buzz Club Pls RT

But seriously , what has nature ever done for us ? You know , apart from the air we breathe , the food we eat , making us healthier . . .

Brilliant new ad from Zero Hour to promote their Climate & Nature Bill campaign , take action at zerohour.uk

#EarthDay

Greece has become the first country in Europe to announce a ban on bottom trawling in all of its national marine parks and protected areas.

The country will spend €780m (£666m) to protect its “diverse and unique marine ecosystems”.

theguardian.com/environment/20…

A sad story about how one man - who has been monitoring a population of marsh tits for 22 generations - is watching them go extinct Richard Broughton 🇺🇦

Like all our soundscape pieces this week, it points to a much bigger story happening all over our planet theguardian.com/environment/20…

I was just thinking someone needs to write a paper saying it is not biodiversity per se, but *species interactions*, that underpin ecosystem services

This new paper makes that point, although I think there is much more to say on the subject
besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.10…

I was on BBC News (UK) earlier discussing the fact that we've just had 10 record breaking months in a row.

'What we're seeing is that these record breaking temperatures are causing huge devastation & extremes that are having catastrophic effects for peoples lives & livelihoods' 1/2🧵

“Unprecedented wet weather”. “Relentless barrage of rainfall” “a significant increase in rainfall “all the last few years seem to be getting worse“

But no mention of Climate Change. This was predicted decades ago.

REVEALED: 18 Tory MPs have written to Environment Secretary Steve Barclay urging him to gut Natural England’s powers to create nature reserves (SSSIs)

This latest #AttackOnNature must not succeed

(Thanks to Joe Marshall for obtaining the letter)

Thread 1/

Neat video clip here from Roger Auster, of a Sea #Trout successfully traversing a #Beaver dam in SW England. After the second (large) fish leaps, you can see the ripples in the smooth water right of centre on the crest of the dam as it powers through.

Wow, it’s been a rather epic amount of work for everyone involved… but we got our CS Higher Tier agreement today

Lots more wood pasture, loads of grassland restoration, some making space for water, more hedges and scrub, many thousands more trees - all round a productive farm

Birding some Kentish woodlands yesterday with Ian Searle made for a good day. 11 Hawfinch, Lesser-spotted Woodpecker, Firecrests, Tawny Owls, Bramblings, Siskins, Lesser Redpolls!

Diverted via Godmersham to get excellent views of the Little Bunting, another Kent ✅ for me!

Colin Carlson Nature Medicine All true but projections look way higher:

Around +4°C by 2100 by IPCC projections, but add tipping points, fix low-ball climate sensitivity, etc.

Above +4°C carrying capacity should fo below 1 billion (Steffan et al)

Ask where those 7 billion go? youtube.com/watch?v=pGI0R1…

Climate change has killed at least four million people. I wrote this because I felt like I was the only one who had noticed. If you ever read and share anything I've written, I hope it'll be this short piece, out today in Nature Medicine
nature.com/articles/s4159…

NEW! We've created the most comprehensive map of England's #hedgerows to date!

💡 390,000km of hedgerow on field boundaries
📏 Depicts hedgerow length & height (for 1st time!)
🔎 Reveals areas with highest & lowest hedgerow densities

Read more: ceh.ac.uk/press/high-tec… 1/🧵

Its here at last - Lesser Spotted Woodpeckers in 2023 breeding season - our report of the 21 nests monitored in 8 counties is now on our website - details of how the nests were found and their outcomes - huge thanks to all our volunteers - what a year! woodpecker-network.org.uk/images/LSW_rep…

The most productive 33% of English land produces around 60% of agricultural output, while the bottom 33% only produces 15%

Freeing up land for nature recovery can have very limited impact on food production (& even none if we change diets & reduce waste)
gov.uk/government/pub…

2023 smashes record for world’s hottest year by huge margin

- Planet was 1.48C hotter in 2023, finds Copernicus ECMWF

- Rapid cut in fossil fuel burning urgently needed to preserve a liveable climate, say scientists

#ClimateCrisis
Story by me
theguardian.com/environment/20…

A sad day: Norway has become the first country in the world to move forward with commercial-scale deep-sea mining.

The bill passed on Tuesday, concerns Norwegian waters, but agreement on mining in international waters could also be reached this year.

bbc.co.uk/news/science-e…